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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

I love this quilt! I think the inner piano key border really catches my eye. This was an original quilt based on Little Women. I thought the "Little Women" were so adorable! (but not so little) This one was all hand pieced and hand quilted! Cheddar. Need I say more? You can't tell from the photos but this was a small quilt. I really liked the border fabric and the scalloped binding. These little squares are all appliqued onto the background. Something about it really caught my eye. A nice country style quilt in autumn colors.

Momma Made It , from Longview WA. I've been there maybe 2-3 times. I love the quilts they had displayed, especially the one with squares to the right of the cashier.

Galloping Pony Studio from Moses Lake, WA. I've seen her quilt art online before but they are so much cuter in person!

I couldn't wait to come home and start on a few of these tiny blocks so I can make my own. I also thought they'd make great Christmas gifts without making a whole quilt! These are a little less then 2 ".

Bird Brain Designs. They had the most adorable items made with wool roving using needle felting. I would have loved to buy a sample, but not start another form of crafting with wool.

Do you think fall is here? I didn't actually notice the color of my purchases until after I got home.

Friday, September 25, 2009

I know enough about Electric Quilt to do a few basics. I can play with layouts and figure out how many blocks I want and what size the quilt will be. That's about it.Here's a few layouts in EQ and the quilt that resulted.I have the hardest time with medallions.

So tell me, do you use EQ? Are you a whiz? Or still a beginner like me? Any great tips you'd like to reveal?

I'm going to the NW Quilting Expo today in Portland then hair appointment with DD then out to dinner to celebrate her 26th birthday!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

I've seen many bloggers write that fall is their favorite time of the year. I like this time of the year but I have to say I do not have a favorite season. I grew up north of Seattle and the weather was pretty much gray with rain most of the time. When I moved to Central Oregon I loved that there were four distinct seasons.What I notice the most is when autumn is in the air- you know it. For the past couple of weeks there has been a chill in the evenings. We've had beautiful days, as the photos will contest to. Amber waves of grain. Brisk mornings.

The last cutting of alfalfa.

Big beautiful mums.

The transition from autumn to winter is a bit blurred. It sure doesn't wait until December 21st to snow. And the crocuses blooming in spring tells me I may be able to plant annuals or a garden in 2 months.I love the change of seasons and welcome them all, on their time.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

This used to be a quilt shop, up until about 3 weeks ago. It is a cute little house, too bad there wasn't more going on inside.

I live in a small farming community of about 5,000. We used to have a great place to have fun and buy fabric. It was downstairs in a clothing store. (something you would only find in a small rural community) The "quilt shop" also shared space with toys and gifts. I taught a few classes there. I purchased my Dear Jane book there. I have fond memories of our department store.They had to close several years ago. So we had no quilting store in our town for quite some time.A few years ago this house opened as a quilt store. I have my thoughts on why it still isn't a quilt store. The owner kept her "real" job and hired out help. I have been in that store exactly 3 times. The first time was for ecru or off white quilting thread. They had no quilting thread. The second time I was looking for bias tape maker. I don't think I really even cared what size. Nope, they didn't have that either. The third time I was looking for invisible quilting thread and I did actually score a spool. Now, I consider myself a pretty die hard quilter and I was in her store 3 times in about 3 years!? I think they had as many bolts of fabric the first time as they did the last time. There were no samples hanging, no friendly hellos, just not much of anything going on. I never even heard about any classes!I would like to support the local quilt shops, if I felt they were doing their part. The owner never put herself into 100%. She had to have known in the back of her mind somewhere that it wasn't going to work. What a shame.I actually heard from the quilt shop owner in the next town over that she was closing.If you have a quilt shop please make sure you are giving the customers what they want. We want you to stay in business but we'd also like your employees to be friendly.

OK, I guess that's my rant for the day. I feel kinda sad about it too.

Monday, September 21, 2009

This is what I have started so far. Well, actually I have the next border pieces cut but because it isn't an easy size to work with I'm having to do a bit of math!I've shown quite a few borders in other quilts that are just cut off. I'm going to try and not make it look so obvious, but there will be some borders with a little wonkiness. Although I paper pieced the triangles I had to cut them off a bit to make them fit. As I make progress feel free to look for the fudging. I won't be pointing it out.